Soft bags, such as suitcases, tote bags, sport bags and back-packs, of all sizes and types are presently manufactured throughout the world. The bags are transported from the manufacturer to their destination in a flatly packed or nested state so as to take up minimal shipping space thereby reducing the cost of shipping. As most retailers prefer to sell and/or display these bags fully stuffed for marketing purposes, the retailer often arranges for the bags to be stuffed and repacked at a stuffing facility located near the final destination or at the point of sale. To accomplish this, the bags must be removed from their original shipping cartons, manually stuffed, such as with crumpled paper, stiff cardboard, inflated members or other means, and then repacked in larger cartons that will hold the stuffed bags. Such stuffing increases the cost of the bags and additionally creates storage problems.
As a result of the problems associated with manually stuffed bags, there has been introduced into the market insertable apparatus that permits a bag to be retained in a flat state for shipping and then, automatically or manually, allows the bag to be easily and quickly expanded by the retailer. Such insertable apparatus eliminates the costly stuffing process for display or sales purposes while still retaining the savings associated with the ability to ship or store the bags in a flat state. Typically, such expandable member has been made from corrugated cardboard and is urged into the desired state by appropriately positioned resilient means, e.g. rubber-bands. Exemplary of such apparatus are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,077,451; 4,141,399; 4,946,292; 4,969,751; and 4,993,846.
While the insertable apparatus set forth in these patents are adequate to fulfill the need for an alternative to stuffing, simpler, less costly and/or more effective designs are always desirable.